Rise Today
by The Jester of Fools
Summary: A brief interlude between Team 7 returning from Wave and the Chunin Exams.


Disclaimer- Nothing except for the circumstances in this story is mine. Enjoy.

* * *

Naruto sighed and flopped on his ratty bed. His team had just come back from Wave Country, needless to say he was feeling depressed. Another sigh escaped his lips as he pulled his ancient Discman from it's hiding place under his bed. He only owned one CD, but there was really only one song he ever listened to, one that explained him in the truest sense of the word. He slipped in the earphones and turned the volume up full blast.

Naruto snorted, 'It's not like Kyuubi will let me go deaf.'

Hitting the play button, the sounds of an electric guitar filled his conscious mind.

**The wind is blowing cold**

**Have we lost our way tonight?**

**Have we lost our hope to sorrow?**

Have we lost our way? So many different meanings. He drew in a shuddering breath as he thought of his 'adventure' in Wave. Flashes of ice, mist, and bloodlust flittered in jagged shards of memory around the music.

"Death is part of a shinobi's life, we need to accept it." He whispered to the empty room.

'_But what you saw changed you, and not for the better.' _His unconscious mind argued.

**Feels like we're all alone**

**Running further from what's right**

**And there are no more heroes to follow**

Feels? No; never feel. He _was_ always alone, no matter what he said or acted like. None would accept him, the Demon Brat. Naruto's wrists started to _itch_. His eyes wandered to them as he held them before his dull gray eyes.

**So what are we becoming?**

**Where did we go wrong?**

"Being born," Naruto snickered, allowing the battered and calloused hands to envelope his closed eyes. "That's where it all went wrong. Who knows," Naruto laughed as his hands lowered and ran over the jagged 'whiskers' on his face. "Maybe I will become Kyuubi's incarnate, just to make the hateful things they say true." A sick grin stretched unnaturally across his childish face. "Wouldn't that be something."

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**I want to rise today**

**And change this world**

Hokage? That was just a cover story. 'Look underneath the underneath', as the shinobi saying goes. He never really wanted to be the ruler of this damned village, he only used that as an excuse to get closer to Sarutobi. The only that could, marginally, protect him from the mobs of drunk and angry villagers. Most of the ANBU were only too happy to watch him suffer; reacting only when he was at Death's door... sometimes not even then...

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**Oh, won't you rise today**

**And change this world?**

No, his true goal is to live another day. No matter what happens, Naruto wanted to live through it, just to see what would happen and how it would affect him. But in a ninja society this goal would be very hard to maintain, especially for those at younger ages. Luckily, he was the container of the 'Dreaded Kyuubi no Yokai', the most feared demon spirit in the elemental countries. Perhaps that will give him an edge in the future. A disbelieving snort disturbed the air, "Not bloody likely."

**The sun is beating down**

**Are we ever gonna change**

**Can we stop the blood from running?**

"If you look into any river in the elemental countries, you will see that it has an thick undercurrent of congealed blood at the bottom, so is a testament to our nature." This came directly from his fourth grade science textbook (which he had to steal) and was very true. No matter where you went, death would always surround the path of a ninja like a funeral shroud.

**Our time is running out**

**Hope we find a better way**

**Before we find we're left with nothing**

"We deserve nothing, for we are nothing, just shadows in a pitch black painting, that is the life of an assassin, a _ninja_." Naruto whispered emotionlessly. The itch worsened and he started to scratch at his wrists.

**For every life that's taken**

**So much love is wasted**

Love, what was so good about love that you had to sacrifice everything for it? Oh sure, when he was younger he had a small crush on Sakura, but that had quickly died as she started treating him progressively worse as she became more and more infatuated with Sasuke. He felt like taking her (somewhat) pretty face and bashing it in with his knee, but that would make the villagers call for blood and start a crusade.

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**I want to rise today**

**And change this world**

Sasuke, another glaring example of stupidity. Oh, so his family was killed, big whoop! He had to live without a family for all of his life. There was no orphanage that would take the 'damned Demon Brat' in. The one that Sarutobi assigned him to only let him in on days the Hokage was visiting, so it wouldn't raise suspicion. He had had to steal all of his food and clothing for the majority of his life. This suited him just fine, he learned more on the streets than in an oppressive orphanage.

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**So won't you rise today**

**And change**

Naruto's ears were buzzing with the sound, he could actually feel Kyuubi's chakra healing his ears just as fast as he was damaging them. The itching in his wrists now morphed into a burning pain, his nails dug deeper, trying to sate the pain. Unconsciously he raised one hand and directed it toward a half-destroyed shelf. With a small jerking movement, a sharp kunai sailed into his hand.

**This world**

**Only love can set it right**

**This world**

**If only peace would never die**

Love, he didn't know the meaning of the word. Sure he got the idea of it, but not the true feeling. Perhaps the world should be allowed to die, it seems a failure anyway. Who needed a society where they would ostracize people for being different? So uncivilized... The blond ninja slashed his wrists in a barbaric pattern, crisscrossing each other to create diamond shaped patterns across the front of his wrists.

**Seems to me that we've got each other wrong**

**Was the enemy just your brother all along?**

'Truer words never spoken.' What were we if not Brothers, or Sisters for that matter. It didn't seem to matter who the better person was, all anyone cared about was who won. Really, he wouldn't be surprised if the elemental countries were, centuries before, just one village that grew tired of having to deal with each other and just broke off into their individual clans, isolating themselves from the others to follow their own ideals. It would make much more sense. Blood seeped from his wrists like a faucet, staining the bed's red coverings even darker.

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**I want to rise today**

**And change this world**

Naruto watched as Kyuubi's chakra seeped out of the wounds and drew them inward, sealing up as if they had never happened. He forced his chakra to mix with Kyuubi's to leave one scarred diamond over the front of his wrists.

"A little memento…and a reminder." His eyes darkened as he thought of Haku. "Yes, definitely a reminder."

With a flick of his wrist, he banished the kunai back to where it was before, the remaining blood flying in an arc after it.

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**Oh won't you rise today**

**And change this world?**

Change the world, perhaps. Recreate it in his image; his ideals. No one left behind, no person singled out, all family, all friends, _utopia_. The ideals fell as soon as they were built, who would ever follow _him_? But one never really told with life, you could die in an instant or live years past what you're expected to. The truth was that no one really knew, and that truly scared him.

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**I want to rise today**

**And change this world**

A resounding knock on the front door flung decade-old dust from the rattling walls and rafters. Naruto slipped his earphones out with a sigh, not bothering to turn off the music. He took a deep breath and put his cheerful mask into place. With a quick jerk he opened the door, to reveal Sasuke.

Naruto glared at the boy, "What do you want, teme?"

Sasuke just gave him a cold look of disinterest, "You're late for the debriefing, I was sent to retrieve you."

"Fine, let's go." Naruto grumbled. In the back of his mind he silently winced at his Mask's behavior. _'They underestimate me, is that good, or bad?'_

Just before Naruto shut the door they heard the last lines of his song echo from the bedroom, headphones wailing out for all to hear:

**Yeah, oh yeah**

**I want to rise today**

**And change this world**

"What was that, English?" Sasuke demanded.

In a rare (for his mask) moment of seriousness, Naruto just shook his head and whispered, "Nothing Sasuke, it was nothing."

Sasuke sent him a curious look, then the door shut.

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Author's Note: Hey guys, this was written on a half hours sleep after 36 hours of straight work. The only thing keeping me going right now is a XXL can of Monster. Think I'm gonna go crash now, leave a review if you want. Later.

Updated Note: Found a lot of errors, wanted to correct them. Oh, and more songs and scenes will be on display soon. Ideas for songs and scenes are welcome. They won't be in any sort of timeline either.


End file.
